According to Gebeyehu-Houston, the book's editor, Sobi Hossain '00, was particularly happy to have hired the pair because Hussein felt that as black women, they would add a new voice to the book.

"Sobi's goal was to transform the South Africa book so that it had a more diverse group of reporters," Gebeyehu-Houston says. "She wanted it from the perspective of the African American student."

But as Gebeyehu-Houston and Johnson prepared for their trips, they began to worry that it would be dangerous to travel alone as black women.

Generally, researchers travel alone for a number of weeks, keeping in contact with their editors via telephone alone. Researchers visit sites throughout their assigned regions and send their work back to Let's Go editors in Cambridge.

Gebeyehu-Houston and Johnson began to worry that it wouldn't be safe for them to travel alone as black women in the nations to which they were assigned.

"Fana and I were worried because we had both been to Africa and seen a difference in treatment between black and white women," Johnson says. Gebeyehu-Houston agreed.

"White people are not at the same risk in those countries," she says. "Anyone that looks like the general population is more susceptible to crime."

Johnson says she also became concerned for her safety after hearing reports of other Let's Go reporters who faced safety problems while abroad.